In New York, Netanyahu Disappoints Some Rabbis

By GUSTAV NIEBUHR

Published: February 17, 1997

Meeting in New York City with leaders of Judaism's Reform and Conservative movements, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested on Saturday that he would not block a controversial bill to bar the movements' rabbis in Israel from performing religious conversions recognized by the state, according to meeting participants.

''He implied that it was going to happen,'' said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, whose organization represents about 1,000 Reform synagogues in North America.

He added that Mr. Netanyahu ''gave us no grounds'' for hoping that the Prime Minister would block the bill, which would insure that conversions occur solely under the authority of Orthodox rabbis.

The bill would apply only to conversions performed in Israel and not change the Israeli Government's recognition of conversions by rabbis of all branches of Judaism outside Israel.

The half-hour meeting, which brought together Rabbi Yoffie, Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and six other leaders of the two movements, together with the Israeli Prime Minister, took place at the Essex House after Mr. Netanyahu had attended services at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue. Mr. Netanyahu arrived in New York from a visit to Washington, where he met with President Clinton.

In a letter to Mr. Netanyahu last November, Rabbi Yoffie and Rabbi Schorsch, whose seminary trains men and women for the Conservative rabbinate, requested a meeting to discuss the situation of non-Orthodox religious Jews in Israel.

Although the Reform and Conservative movements account for the vast majority of religious Jews in the United States, the situation is far different in Israel, where the dominant religious group is Orthodox and most of the rest of the population is secular. Israel's founders gave the Orthodox control of the nation's religious affairs, a situation known there as the ''status quo.'' But in the early 1990's, the Israeli Supreme Court seemed to open the door to a greater role for the country's small Reform and Conservative movements, with a ruling suggesting that conversions in Israel by non-Orthodox rabbis could be legally recognized. The three Orthodox political parties that are members of Mr. Netanyahu's governing coalition pledged after his election last year to reverse that ruling legislatively.

In the meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, Rabbi Schorsch said he wanted ''to make it clear to the Prime Minister that if Israel is the center of the Jewish world, Israel has a responsibility to Jews in the Diaspora and not just to Jews in the State of Israel.''

But he also said that Mr. Netanyahu indicated that he was politically bound to allow the Orthodox parties in his government to bring the bill to a vote. ''I think he made it pretty clear he had made these commitments before the election and he was going to honor them,'' Rabbi Schorsch said. ''He did not hold out much hope for averting the legislation.'' Mr. Netanyahu did not comment outside the meeting on his position. Despite their disappointment with Mr. Netanyahu's position, Rabbi Yoffie and Rabbi Schorsch said the meeting was cordial.

Mr. Netanyahu later met with representatives of Orthodox groups. A participant of that meeting, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, president of Agudath Israel of America, an umbrella group of Orthodox Jewish organizations, said that he and other Orthodox leaders were ''prayerfully optimistic'' that Mr. Netanyahu ''will keep his commitment'' on the bill. ''We hope that he is serious about codifying what was always the status quo,'' Rabbi Sherer said.

Mr. Netanyahu left for Israel last night. His entourage was delayed by an accident involving a police motorcycle escort en route to Kennedy International Airport. The unidentified officer was hospitalized in stable condition.